Crashman X
by crashman
Summary: I knew eventualy, the end of me would come. I didn't know that I would actually get a second chance at life. Now I need to find my brothers, and fufill my original purpose. rated T for some violence.
1. Chapter 1

**All characters are owned by CAPCOM**

Crashman X

Chapter 1: Reawakening

**"...Systems fully charged. Systems are rebooting."**

I awoke in a small chamber. I tried to remember how I ended up here, but my memory circuits weren't charged yet. I saw a window. I would walk up to it, but I was hooked up to the wall to charge. I could barely see out of it, I saw two figures fighting, but they both looked like silhouettes.

One had what looked like a Gatling gun on his back, and the other was of humanoid shape. I could see the Gatling gun guy shooting at the normal guy when suddenly; the normal guy flashed and ran away. Worse, when he flashed, I could see his face.

Flashman.

The flash meant he had used time stopper to freeze time. Luckily, I was immune to it, and apparently, so was Mr. Gatling gun. He shot Flashman multiple times, and I could see it was starting to get to him. I wanted to help, but like I said, I was stuck to a wall.

"Flashman!" I yelled, but he couldn't hear me. I knew I had to do something, but I didn't know what. That's when I saw it; our friendly neighborhood Gatling gun guy grabbed Flash man, and fired at his torso area. He flew back and broke through the door.

I had to do something or I would be Swiss cheese like Flashman. Gatling gun dude was coming, and I couldn't exactly hide. My systems were still damaged, so I couldn't move anything but my head. My head! I had an idea! I closed my eyes and hung my head low.

He entered. I peeked a little bit to see what he looked like. He looked like a purple knight with, of course, a Gatling gun on his back. "Gwahahahaha!" He said. "You weren't much of an opponent."

"Hehe" Flashman chuckled. "I wasn't aiming to fight. I told you!"

"And that turned out so well for you, didn't it?"

"Use all the sarcasm you like, Vile, that still doesn't change anything. Do you know where my brothers are?

"Don't know." The guy known as Vile turned to me. "This one of them?"

Flashman attempted to look up. "Urgh, I can't move my head at all."

Vile laughed. "Whatever. Doesn't matter. I'm done here. Since you're the only one here, there's no one left to fight. See ya." Suddenly, he jumped in the air a little and teleported away.

As if in a chain reaction, my body was finally mobile again. I dropped to the ground. Luckily, my feet were able to land. I immediately ran over to Flashman. "Dude, you alright?"

"Hehehe." Flashman laughed. "Crashman, I never thought I'd see you again. How's it going, buddy?"

"What happened? Where's Wily? And Bass? And the others?"

"You don't remember? Wily's new creation. It went crazy and killed him, and some of the robot masters."

"Who! Who was it!" I was furious, if you couldn't tell for some reason.

"I can't say much. I'm almost out of power, but Z is the deadliest letter."

At that he shut down. But suddenly, the wall opened up to reveal a pod. I placed Flashman in it, and then he was chained to the wall charging.

"Don't worry man." I said. "I'll find our brothers."

I exited through the doors and realized where I was. I was in what was skull compound. The shells of Mettals and the shields of Sniper Joes littered the floor. Even the skeleton of the Mecha Dragon was no more than scrap metal. Memories of my days here flooded my mind like an overflowing glass of water. I don't know what has been going on; I don't know how things will turn out. But I know one thing. I had two goals.

The first was to find my brothers.

The second was my original purpose: destroy Megaman. No matter where I am or what time it was. The problem was I didn't even know if Megaman was alive anymore. But I know one person that might answer my questions about all that has happened.

I have to find that Vile guy.

I am Crashman. The thirteenth robot master. I am the wielder of the Crash bomb.

And I will be the one to find my brothers.


	2. Chapter 2

**Characters are owned by Capcom.**

CRASHMAN X

CHAPTER 2: DISCOVERY

Walking for about 2 hours, and not finding anything but ruins and decimation. I was starting to wonder if I was the only one on earth. Okay, so that was the first ten minutes, but you've got to look at it from my perspective. If you were walking in a ruined city for ten minutes, you just saw your brother get beat up by a guy with a Gatling gun strapped to his back, and by the way, you were asleep for who knows how long, what would you do?

After 20 minutes, something happened. I received an update. Apparently Megaman was no longer online, so that goal was checked off my list. But, it was replaced by another more confusing goal. The replacement was, "Destroy the final creation of Dr. Thomas Light." It didn't specify of what it was I was looking for, or where it was. All I knew was it was it was out there, somewhere on the planet. In other words, it was probably built sometime that my memory circuits couldn't remember.

Speaking of my memory circuits, they had decided to give more of my memories back to me. But some of my memories had large blobs of static, as if my memory was censoring itself. They took the forms of near-humanoid shapes. At this, I realized I couldn't remember some of my brothers. No images came to my mind upon attempting to remember their names. At this point, only a select few came to mind.

After a long time of walking, it started to snow. Only, the snow wasn't falling on me no matter what. I tried to catch a flake, but it just swerved away. The odd thing about that was no wind was blowing. I tried this for about a minute, until one finally landed on my arm. I jerked my arm back, because the snowflake was scalding hot. I looked closer and saw that it was ash and not snow. I looked up and found that the ash was falling from a pitch-black cloud. That was pretty normal, but the fact that a portion of it was on fire was pretty strange. There seemed to be a massive circle with a symbol in it burning in the clouds. That symbol appeared to be the Greek letter omega with a horizontal line under it. The Libra symbol.

I looked in front of me, and saw a giant golem lumbering towards me. He appeared to have no head, abnormally large hands, and steam emerging from most of his body. As he came closer, I saw his head was just a small circle with eyes on the top of his body. The Libra symbol burned in the middle of his body. I could feel the steam at this point. It was extremely cold. We're talking frozen solid in swim trunks in the arctic sea at night in the winter. The ground shook as he got closer. I could see a massive coat of some kind of grey armor around him. He stopped right in front of me, and I swear I could hear him utter the words, "Libra, Frost, Golem." Then he pulled his entire arm back, and almost punched me in the face.

When I realized it was all just a dream, I also realized the golem wasn't. As it turns out, I was now lying in a pile of rubble, and I had received massive damage to my torso area. The golem also was way larger than I had originally thought. He pulled his arm back again, preparing to punch me again. I leapt into the air to dodge the punch. This led to me landing on his hand, which did immensely more damage. I jumped off, and noticed that his hands were surrounded in a light-blue aura of sorts. Before I could react, he grabbed me and started crushing me. I thought I was a goner, until I noticed another symbol on him. It was very faded, but I swear I saw a w on his shoulder.

"A creation of Dr. Wily?" I accidentally thought out loud.

This caused some shock for the both of us. In almost unison, he let go as I prepared one of my crash bombs. I hit the ground and fired, causing it to land straight on his stomach. He seemed confused and sad at this point, and looked at me. A deep look at those eyes, and I realized who he was.

"Frostman?"

Those were the last words I said to him, as then he exploded. His arm, though disconnected, hit me square in the head. I guess I deserved it though, swearing I'd find my brothers and then proceeding to murder one of them by accident. Still, we were far from any recharge stations, so unlike Flashman, I couldn't just hook him up and go elsewhere. Besides, the explosion had completely destroyed him beyond repair. His head was basically a burned Frisbee at this point.

However, when that arm hit me, I felt a surge of power go through me. Suddenly, my crash bombs retracted into my body. What replaced them was something I had never had before; HANDS. I moved my fingers around, opened and closed my hand, you know, stuff you do when you get hands. When I threw my fist forward, however, a light blue aura surrounded my hand. When I punched a building, it completely erupted into rubble.

"That was a pretty interesting fight if you ask me."

I looked over and saw a man standing there. Well, more like a bird man. He had a birds head, wings, and talons. He also had a cannon on his arm, but neither birds nor men have that. "You seemed to not know his movements, but at the same time, hesitated them like you did."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Well, you clearly didn't know the power he had, but you acted as if you did."

"Are you saying I don't know my brothers actions?"

"Your brother is one of the zodiac mavericks?"

"Zodiac whats?"

"A Zodiac Maverick." He explained. "They are a group of mavericks who's powers are based on the astrological zodiac symbols. In this case, that was Libra Frost. With his Libra Fist, a powerful punch only accessed by reploids of balance, he could destroy cities in a matter of minutes. We sent a team of maverick hunters to terminate him, but he proved to be too powerful for them. So Commander Sigma sent me to deal with him. But he must've also sent you, and you clearly did more than me. Although I haven't seen you around HQ. Are you a new Hunter?"

"I'm not a hunter." I told him. "I don't know who Sigma is, or what a maverick is, or where I am, or anything else. What do you know? Who are you?"

"Well," He said as he calmly bowed. "My name is Storm Eagle, and I am one of the highest ranked maverick hunters. How would you like to become one?"


	3. Chapter 3

**All characters are owned by Capcom**

Crashman X

Chapter 3: Questions

On the way to the maverick hunter HQ, Storm Eagle informed me of what had happened during the past years. Apparently, a new type of robot had been invented, called a reploid. These reploids had no primary directive, and therefore could do as they pleased. As he spoke of this, I began to think about my brothers and I. We had been created for the dispatchment of Megaman. But some of us, like Ballade and Sunstar, chose to aid Megaman in one way or another. I was going towards the maverick hunter HQ to become one, but how did I know that wasn't just a step towards finding the final creation of Dr. Light?

He also informed me on mavericks. Mavericks were reploids with errors, beliefs, or decisions that have put humanity at risk. It is a maverick hunter's duty to seize and contain mavericks. Hearing him discuss these duties, maintaining the peace, made me rethink becoming a maverick hunter. They were based around protection, when all I've known is destruction. How could I protect the humans the hunters were sworn to? The only reason Storm Eagle wanted me to be a hunter was because I took down Libra Frost. Nothing had changed. They didn't expect a hero. They expected a weapon.

Eventually, we reached the maverick hunter HQ. Inside, I saw reploids leading other reploids away. The ones being led away were in chains, so I assumed they were mavericks. They didn't look very threatening, even disregarding Libra Frost. Some reploids, I assumed hunters, were talking. Some looked humanoid, but others looked like various animals, just like Storm Eagle. There was a mandrill speaking to an armadillo, as well as an octopus speaking to a blue humanoid reploid. At first, I thought it was Megaman, with similar designs and all. Then I realized there were some differences between the two. This reploid looked more mature with more armor, and he had a red gem on his helmet.

The blue reploid looked over at Storm Eagle and, with a surprised look on his face, walked over to him. "Storm Eagle!" He said in a confused voice. "You survived the zodiac maverick!? Commander Sigma told us that he wasn't sure you'd make it back in one piece." He looked over at me. "And who's this guy?"

Storm Eagle chuckled. "This guy is the reason I'm alive." He said. "He defeated Libra Frost before I even got to the location."

All conversations stopped. Even the mavericks turned and looked over at me. Everybody was just staring with wide eyes at this tiny red robot that had apparently slain a maverick the size of a small house.

"This is-" Storm Eagle paused. Then he looked over at me. "Actually, I never got your name. What is it?"

"My name is Crash-"I began, then stopped. A name like Crashman wasn't really something they'd accept. I didn't know if any of them knew about Dr. Wily, and I wasn't about to raise any eyebrows. Metaphorically, since most of these guys didn't have them. "Just Crash."

"Crash here took down Libra Frost in one shot. He has some kind of drill-mine thing that completely obliterated Libra Frost in one hit!"

"Is that so?"

I looked up to see a red reploid approaching us. He had a long blonde ponytail, red and white armor, and a green gem on his helmet. Something about him didn't feel right, like I had seen him before. "Hey. My name's Zero." He spoke. At the mention of his name, my memory circuits started short circuiting, as if they were trying to dig up a submerged memory. I looked around and felt my visual scan of the room become blurry, and eventually, I shut down.

Robots don't usually dream. If we do, we all see Sheepman for some reason. In this dream, however, I was standing in the ruins of a city. I looked around and saw some fires burning around me, each of which had a symbol burning above it. Zodiac symbols. One wasn't burning however, and that was the Libra symbol, obviously because I had slain Libra Frost. I looked up and saw a giant stereotypical menacing shadow hanging above me, with stereotypical glowing red eyes and a dark demonic voice.

_**"You may have slain the golem, but my sentries still stand at the ready. Now, you have sparked my interest. I will make sure you are dealt with. You may think you know who I am, but your thoughts can and will deceive you. You will know my name only when it is too late for you to do anything about it. You will eventually come to a small town. You will meet many people here, one of which you know everything, and yet nothing about. It is here that the next zodiac maverick will appear, and dig your grave in jagged flames. I cannot tell you more, except for good luck, and prepare to die…"**_

I awoke in what appeared to be a mechanic's office. I looked around me and saw other maverick hunters getting repairs. A penguin's back was being repaired of some slight armor breaches, and a mammoth's trunk was being attached. I saw that Storm Eagle and Zero were both talking, along with the blue reploid. He looked over and saw that I was apparently awake. "Hey. He's up." He said casually, like I had just been resting.

"Hey." Storm Eagle asked. "What happened back there? You just collapsed out of nowhere. We checked in with a mechanic, and they said your energy supply, while primitive, was still full and functional. Needless to say, we made a few adjustments to your system, physically and internally. You are now on par with us. Speaking of which, when were you built? You looked very out of date."

"The year-"I couldn't remember the exact year. "20XX"

"That's almost 100 years ago, even with rusty details. Who built you?"

"Well-"

"So, this is the zodiac maverick slayer I've heard so much about."

I looked up and saw a green bulky robot with blank blue eyes and a stern face walk towards me. He looked down upon me and spoke in a deep, stern voice. "So, you're this Crash I've been hearing about?"

"Uh, yeah?" I responded.

He took one hard look at me. "No." He said. "There is no way someone like you could've taken down a zodiac maverick."

"Commander Sigma," Storm Eagle attempted to reason. "I saw him do it with my own eyes. One shot, and it was down."

"And how do you know that it was only him?" He asked. "How do you know someone else didn't do any of the work, but then fell in battle?"

"There weren't any bodies around the area."

"Obliteration. Have you even seen what the Libra fist is capable of? Have you seen the people disintegrate from it?" Commander Sigma looked at me. "If he really wants to prove himself, he should take down another zodiac maverick, as soon as we find one."

"A small mining town." I blurted out.

Everyone looked at me. "How do you know that?" The blue reploid asked.

"I-uh…"

"That would make sense." Storm Eagle stated. "Toxix did go to a small mining town to research some metals there. A zodiac maverick could easily go there and assassinate him. He's unguarded. We attempted to send some help, but he said that the eldest reploid there is a very powerful warrior."

"Uh, yeah!" I said. "That's why I knew. I heard some guys talking and assumed that it would be an probable place for an assault."

"He's our head researcher." Sigma said. "Storm Eagle, X, you two can sit this one out. Zero, go with this ancient scrap metal." He glared with me. "I want him to prove himself." He then left. But as he was leaving, he looked back and said, "If there are any casualties, they're on you." He then vanished from the doorway.

"Well, he seems pleasant." I said.

"Commander Sigma can be a bit cold…" The blue reploid, I assumed X, explained. "After a while…he is a bit less cold…"

"Oh joy."

"Well, you heard him" Storm Eagle stated. "You and Zero head to that mining town. But be warned."

He began to walk out the door, but turned around. "The reploid in that town. He will not hesitate to kill you if you get in his way."


	4. Chapter 4

**All characters are owned by Capcom**

Crashman X

Chapter 4: Faces

The heavy wind beat down upon the giant bumblebee-like helicopter that was transporting us to the town. We didn't talk much. Zero only asked about Libra Frost. I told him that it wasn't until he was a second away from destruction that he showed any trace of being Frostman. I pondered to myself about the situation. He came to when I mentioned that he was built by Dr. Wily. I had to make him remember. What did that mean about the rest of my brothers, if there were any left…

Eventually, after hours of flying, we reached the mining town. On the ground, we saw a couple of lower ranked hunters arguing with a green female reploid. She had brown hair, wore what appeared to be glasses, and a light skin tone. We were still too far to hear what they were talking about, but she seemed to be very motivated on defending it. Behind her was a group of other reploids, including a large yellow reploid who looked a lot like a cross between Gutsman and Swordman, a small blue reploid that had an entire diamond for a head, and a cloaked reploid with glowing red eyes. They appeared to be fixed upon our transportation.

As we approached them, I could begin to hear their argument.

"Look ma'am. We only want what's best for the people at this time."

"Forget it. We can take care of ourselves. We don't need to leave."

"Ma'am, theres a zodiac maverick in the area. It's not safe."

"Like I said, we can take care of ourselves. Besides, something being in the area isn't the same as it actually being here. How do we know it will actually come here?"

Zero spoke up. "Is there a problem here?"

The maverick hunter looked up and spoke with staggering confidence, but you could tell he was attempting to sound like he knew what he was doing. "N-no sir! Everything is under control. Just a few stubborn reploids."

"Stubborn!?" The female reploid interjected. "Not wanting to leave our homes to go to some corrupted city full of thieves just because some maverick is in the area is not being stubborn. It's reasonable."

"Sorry ma'am." Zero replied. "But in times like these, you folks don't have enough protection."

"Metal is all the protection we need."

"Have you seen what one zodiac maverick did to titanium? Simple metal won't stand a chance."

"No. I mean Metal, as in him" She nudged towards the cloaked reploid with red eyes, who was staring at me for some reason. As he glared at me, I heard him utter one phrase under his breath.

"Training protocol code A78ER3."

That's who he was.

I leaned back just in time to avoid a slender metal saw blade that buzzed past my face. Everyone except for me and the hooded reploid wore shocked looks on their faces. We then jumped all the way to the roofs of the houses, and proceeded to initiate in combat upon the roofs. He mainly threw saw blades, while I attempted to latch a crash bomb onto him.

"Crash, what are you doing?" Zero asked, with a concerned/confused tone in his voice.

We finally stopped, and then proceeded to shake hands. Well, hand and drill. I looked at Zero and answered. "You know, just a simple brotherly skirmish."

The hooded figure lifted the hood, revealing a red head with a metal saw blade smack dab in the middle. "Everyone, this is my brother, Crash."

I looked at Metalman and smiled. I had found one of my brothers.

That night, we had a feast in the inn, even though we don't need food. I honestly didn't question the logic of it. We all sat at a large mahogany table. There were four other reploids there besides Zero, Metal man, and I. The green reploid was named Platinum, the yellow one was Steel, and the blue one was Lapis. There was also a short orange bartender there who seemed to only move on rails set all over the inn, as he had no legs. He was named Iron. We caught up on what had been going on in the lives of everyone there. I kept my story as vague as possible, to minimize questions.

Finally, Zero commented on our original purpose. "We were sent here to escort the head researcher of the maverick hunter HQ back to the HQ. Is Toxix here?"

"Oh yeah." Platinum commented. "I told him to come down. He appeared to be caught up in some important observations. I couldn't really understand what they were about."

"Maybe if you knew the statistics and properties you were trying to find, you would see why it's so difficult to pry yourself away from work for pointless conversation"

At the top of the stairs, there was a purple reploid with pincers for hands and thin, eight sticklike appendages acting as legs. He had one bright red eye, as the other one had an eye-patch. He had a slender strip of cloth over half his body. He spoke in what sounded like a semi-Transylvanian accent. "You know I was working on something that could potentially revolutionize the field of Reploid design. I would be legendary! They would build statues of me, name cities after me, and who knows what else. I would be-"

"Yeah, yeah." Zero nodded. "Now come on, super genius. You'd better be done with your science project soon, because the two guys with the shiny blasters are supposed to take you home before bed time."

He glared at Zero. "You mock my intellect with your brawn. But I have devised many a plan to deal with the zodiac maverick plaguing the city. With my keen intellect, Libra Frost will be brought down before you know it."

"Oh, he was brought down before I knew it alright, thanks to this guy." Zero responded.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Didn't you hear?" Zero asked. "This guy single handedly defeated Libra Frost with one shot. Blew him sky high. You've got to admit, Toxix. That is pretty impressive."  
>"I have a hard time believing that…" Toxix pondered. "How do you know it was him who took down Libra Frost, assuming he has actually been destroyed."<p>

"Storm Eagle saw it with his own eyes."

"And how do you know Storm Eagle didn't fail the mission, and just say that this random person did it?"

"Storm Eagle wouldn't lie."

"How do you know? There's lots of stuff going on these days. A regular hunter isn't safe. They could be maverick without anyone knowing!"

I stopped this argument by pulling out the Libra Fist. The light-blue glow surrounding my hand shut both of them up.

"The." Toxix said, stunned. "The Libra Fist. How did you-"

"Simple." I said. "I killed him."

There was a long pause, until finally I went upstairs. Admitting that I killed my own brother in front of a bunch of random strangers was one thing, but this time, Metalman had heard it. Bass had occasionally turned on us, but we had expected that from him. I was pretty loyal to Wily and my brothers. The thought of killing one was a near impossible one. Megaman had used our weapons to dispatch one another, sure. But one of us actually killing another one of us, that was unheard of.

I jumped on the roof, as that's what people usually do to think. I began to think. Why did so many people doubt me? Toxix and Sigma both said that they didn't think I was the one who killed Libra Frost, but neither did I. Why was I being praised for murder? I had been feared by humans in the past, but in this society, I was a hero. Why am I the one that they feared and for who we cheer? Why…

"Crashman. Are you all right?"

I looked over and saw Metalman, standing right next to me. As usual, he still had that look of "I am going to kill you" in his eyes, but I also saw the trustworthy glare of my older brother.

"I killed him." I told him. "My own brother, and I killed him. I didn't know it was him until it was too late for me to save him."

"When you woke up," Metalman started. "It was too late to save him. I've heard of what these zodiac mavericks are capable of. I've heard of what they've done. They aren't our brothers anymore. They use their shells to sow the seeds of disorder across this world. They speak in voices, to distorted to sound like their old selves. Crash, these are not our brothers anymore. Did Libra Frost seem at all like Frostman, besides appearance?"

"Not until there was one second left in his life."

"Exactly. You didn't kill Frostman. He died a long time ago when Libra Frost took over his body. You saved him from having to suffer within that shell forever."

We sat there in silence for a long time, until I finally asked him something.

"So, what's your story?"

"Excuse me?"

"I don't know the exact distance, but Skull Compound is very far from here. You couldn't have just appeared here, so what happened?"

He stared down into the town that was shrouded in darkness. "When I awoke, I didn't know much about what was going on, just like you. I walked out for a while, wondering what I should even do. I mean, sure, it still told me to terminate the final creation of Dr. Light, but we don't even know what that is, let alone where it is. That's when I finally ran out of juice, granted I wasn't actually in a fuel energizer to begin with, unlike you."

"When I got up, I was in this town, which according to Platinum, I had collapsed just outside of. Why these people saved me, I have no clue. I was just some old relic of the past, and yet they wasted some of their materials on upgrading me to reploid standards. I still had no clue why I even stayed for the rest of that day. Maybe it had something to do with what happened that night."

"That night, mavericks invaded the town. Many reploids fell, but even more would've fallen if I just stayed put like they told me to. They walked into the inn, which housed the four other reploids you've already seen. They demanded any special materials we had. When Iron refused, they cut off his legs. That's when I stood up and asked them to leave. They refused the first time, but after I asked the second time, they left. I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that I cut their arms off."

"The point is, I had found my purpose. These people needed a savior, and I was in the right place at the right time. I can't begin to imagine the town if I hadn't been here…" He paused. "These people have changed me. I no longer fight to conquer the world for Wily." He looked down at Platinum. "I fight for them…"

I looked over and grinned. "You like her, don't you?"

He paused, then said, "No…" For a master of combat and destruction, he stinks at lying.

We sat there for about two minutes in silence, then I began to walk back inside. Then, Metalman stood up and told me to stop. When I asked why, he pointed into the distance. It just seemed that he was pointing at some rocks at first, but as I looked closer, I saw someone standing there. A man, with a sword for his arms, and his head.

Blademan.

He looked different though. Looking closer, his blades were coming out of two blasters. He also was wearing bulkier armor, his head-blade looked blunter, and he appeared to have two axes sticking out of his shoulder blades, as if they were wings. At first, I was tempted to call out to him, but then I noticed the Aries symbol on his chest plate. He was a zodiac maverick.

"Attention townsfolk!" He spoke with a voice that sounded like a cross between Tenguman and Clownman, the latter of which was already creepy in a way. "I am Aries Blade. I have been sent here for the one named Toxix. He is vital to my master's mission for a future for reploids. If you would please present him now, then I promise no one here will have to die."

Metalman leaped down onto the streets and began to approach him. "I apologize, but we've already received escorts for him back to maverick hunter HQ."

"Hunters? They couldn't even take down Libra Frost. It was-"

"Me." I jumped down to join him against Aries Blade.

"Oh ho ho!" He laughed. "We've heard of you. The legendary reploid who slayed Libra Frost. Bringing your head back will make me among the most legendary of zodiac mavericks!"

He lunged at us with his blade hands, but we saw it coming. We both jumped over him, as I prepared a crash bomb. I fired it directly on his torso, and upon explosion, I heard an ear-piercing screech. I thought it was done, but then the screech turned into crazed laughter. When the smoke cleared, he was still standing there, not a scratch on him.

"Fool! Did you really think what worked once will work again? We made preparations. Your silly Twenty-first century weapons will no longer harm us!" He stepped closer. "But this will!" He prepared to strike, as I froze.

Then Metalman was sliced in half.

As he fell, Platinum ran to his side, making sure he was alright. Luckily, other robots older than us had been cut in half, and still been fine. But I saw Aries Blade, once again, approaching them.

"A disarmed warrior and a helpless maiden? A true warrior would never strike both down." He then proceeded to insanely laugh again. "Then again, I'm not exactly a true warrior, am I?" He brought his arms down upon them.

I was there though. I had activated the Libra Fist, and the blades seemed to not even make a dent against the blue barrier. He tried to pull back, but I grabbed his blades and yanked them off of his body. I surge of energy was sent through my body when they fell; the same feeling I got when I got hit in the head by Libra Frost's arm. The Libra Fist returned into my arm and was replaced with two swords.

"What!? How do you have my Aries Blades?" Aries Blade asked.

"You aren't very original with names…" I commented. Then I readied my blades. "You aren't my brother anymore. You're just another machine of war." With that, I slashed straight through his body, striking a power supply, and a mysterious hunk of metal shaped like the Aries symbol. He let out another loud screech, before falling to the ground limp.

At first, we just stood there in silence. Then I heard the muffled sound of a person clapping. I looked over to see Sigma on a small screen coming out of Toxix's arm. "Well done." He spoke as stern as before, showing no real signs of being impressed. "I suppose there may be a spot in the hunters for someone of your caliber." He turned to Toxix. "Do an analysis on his system. I want to see why he can obtain the zodiac mavericks weapons." With that, the image blurred, and finally vanished.

Toxix walked over to Metalman. "I could repair you if you want. I could upgrade your materials so that a slash like that wouldn't sli-"

"No thanks…" Metalman said. "This place needs me. I think I'll have Steel repair me."

Toxix stood there, trying to think of a protest, then just walked away. He paused at Aries Blade and looked at the symbol that fell out of his body. "I'll have to investigate this." He thought out loud. "This seems important. Who knows? I may be able to trace it back to the source."

The source. The one who did this to my brothers. For the first time since my awakening, I felt like my old self. I looked over at Metalman, who looked at me for a brief second. As I began to walk away, he said, "There's a tournament starting soon in Nitro City. It's a few miles from here."

Toxix looked over. "What kind of tournament? Combat? If it's combat, then a zodiac maverick may show up there."

I looked at him. "How do you know that?" I asked.

"How do you think we first found Libra Frost?"

I looked at Metalman. He had been sliced in half to protect me, so that I could defeat Aries Blade. So that I could defeat Blademan. Something pretending to be Blademan.

"Zero" I said. "Tell Sigma we're checking out this tournament. If a zodiac maverick is there, it's our job to find it."


End file.
